


Sacrifice

by autobotscoutriella



Category: Transformers (Bay Movies), Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Community: fandomweekly, Death of Cybertron, Difficult Decisions, Gen, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-17
Updated: 2019-01-17
Packaged: 2019-10-11 11:55:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17446496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/autobotscoutriella/pseuds/autobotscoutriella
Summary: He has lost more than he cares to think about to the war. The war is not finished taking yet.





	Sacrifice

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for the prompt "Heartbreak" at [FandomWeekly](https://fandomweekly.dreamwidth.org/) on Dreamwidth.

Cybertron is dead. Something inside him has died with it.

Prowl has never considered himself susceptible to a broken spark. He has always been the one to make the impossible choices. He can bear to face down the cold reality that a mech with more emotional ties might shy away from. He has led units into battle knowing that most of them will die, has ordered a retreat from a city that he knows will fall to Decepticon control, has left captured Autobots in Decepticon captivity, all without flinching because he knows the consequences of the alternatives. There has never been any other choice.

This decision is no different. They have sacrificed the AllSpark and any hope for Cybertron to save what remains of their species from extinction.

And this, of all things, has broken him.

Cybertron is home. Cybertron created him and made him the mech he is. He has done everything, crossed every line, made every agonizing decision, seen Praxus burn and watched friends die, in the hope that those who were left would see Cybertron restored. And now his world and that hope are gone, forever.

Praxus. His first mentor. His first lover, and his second. His siblings, other Praxians. Too many friends, lost in battle or turning away from him in disgust at the decisions he has had no choice but to make. Now Cybertron.

There is no other choice.

He cannot flinch away. This time, it was not his decision alone, but he voiced his approval just as the rest of Autobot Command expected he would. Some part of him had not expected Optimus to agree--the part that has shattered into a thousand irreparable tiny grieving shards at the sight of the Cube vanishing like a comet into the distant sky. But it is done and he cannot falter now.

There is no other choice. Cybertron must die so that its children will live.

There is no other choice. The AllSpark gone is better than the AllSpark in Megatron's clutches.

There is no other choice.

He will repeat it to himself every hour as they prepare to leave Cybertron—leave _home_ —and seek refuge on another world. He will repeat it whenever he crosses paths with a grieving Autobot, or a raging one. He will repeat it when it is his turn to set foot on an evacuation ship.

Cybertron is dead. He has helped to kill it. It has broken what spark he had left to do it. And if some mythical entity turned back time and asked him to make the decision again, he would change nothing.

There has never been any other choice.


End file.
